Washington, DC — In response to Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, visiting El Salvador’s notorious mega prison, CECOT, on Wednesday, Setareh Ghandehari, Advocacy Director of Detention Watch Network issued the following statement:
“Noem shamefully used people as props for the Trump regime’s latest media spectacle. With Trump’s invocation of a 227 year old law that Congress, courts, and presidents have apologized for, the Trump regime partnered with Nayib Bukele, President of El Salvador, to indefinitely imprison people shipped from the US in his abusive mega prison with no due process.
Noem and Trump’s Department of Homeland Security are using the Salvadoran prison as a tool of propaganda with the core objective to dehumanize and villainize people while carrying out their cruel mass detention and deportation agenda unchecked. Bottomline, Trump and Bukele's partnership deepens collaboration with authoritarian leaders, further jeopardizing democratic values in the U.S. and around the world.”
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Detention Watch Network (DWN) is a national coalition building power through collective advocacy, grassroots organizing, and strategic communications to abolish immigration detention in the United States.